---
title:  Starting gfsh
---

<!--
Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
(the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->

Before you start gfsh, confirm that you have set JAVA\_HOME and that your PATH variable includes the gfsh executable.

To manage servers and locators properly, `gfsh` requires the `tools.jar` file (provided with the JDK) exist in the CLASSPATH.

**Note:**
On Windows, you must have the JAVA\_HOME environment variable set properly to use start, stop and status commands for both locators and servers.

To launch the gfsh command-line interface, execute the following command at the prompt on any machine that is currently installed with Apache Geode:

**Start gfsh on Windows:**

``` pre
<product_directory>\bin\gfsh.bat 
```

where &lt;*product\_directory*&gt; corresponds to the location where you installed Apache Geode.

**Start gfsh on Unix:**

``` pre
<product_directory>/bin/gfsh
```

where &lt;*product\_directory*&gt; corresponds to the location where you installed Apache Geode. If you installed Apache Geode using RPM, the default product directory installation location is `/opt/pivotal/gemfire`. Upon execution, the `gfsh` script appends the required Pivotal GemFire and JDK Jar libraries to your existing CLASSPATH.

If you have successfully started `gfsh`, the `gfsh` splash screen and prompt appears.

``` pre
c:\Geode\Latest>gfsh.bat
    _________________________     __
   / _____/ ______/ ______/ /____/ /
  / /  __/ /___  /_____  / _____  /
 / /__/ / ____/  _____/ / /    / /
/______/_/      /______/_/    /_/

Monitor and Manage Geode
gfsh>
```

You can also run some gfsh commands directly within your terminal without entering a `gfsh` prompt. For example, on Unix/Linux you could enter:

``` pre
$ gfsh start server --name=server1
```

or on Windows:

``` pre
prompt> gfsh start server --name=server1
```

See [Creating and Running gfsh Command Scripts](command_scripting.html#concept_9B2F7550F16C4717831AD40A56922259) for more information.


